Rhodes19 180 Build

chimmike said:
Might want to put that monti a little higher in the tank, those guys love light.
Click to expand...

Hi chimmike, thanks. I'll definitely do that. I want to acclimate them to the MH for a week or so before I move them up. They came out of a T5 set up and I want to make sure I don't bleach them like I did with my other montis. Hopefully they will do ok. I can't believe how thin the purple rim monti is. I didn't apply much pressure when it snapped. Is there anything I can do to thicken it up or strengthen it?
 
Well, I asked Frankie to come over and help me re rockscape my tank yesterday and boy did we have fun. My rock wall was pretty decent but I finally couldn't take it any more. I've seen so many other peoples tanks and just love the look or their rockscape and the corals that covered them and knew I wasn't going to be able to come close to theirs with my wall so I asked Frankie for some help. We spent about 4 hours working on the tank and when I say we, I mean Frankie, I just was the strong back, assistant. :D I told Frankie what I had seen and liked and he took it from there. We pulled out all the corals and put them in a separate container and then removed almost all the rock.

Corals
Rerockscape3.jpg



Rock
Rerockscape2.jpg



After we pulled all the rock Frankie had me put my diatom filter on the tank to help clear up the water. I would not have thought of that, I've only used my diatom filter on on my FW systems.


Diatom Filter
Rerockscape4.jpg



After the water cleared up a bit I handed Frankie the rocks and he started to put them in place and played with them until he got them where he liked him and had them stable. By the time we were done, the rockscape was looking great. Frankie got it all set up so I have a lot more caves for the fish to swim in and sleep in, a very eye appealing shape and he also got rid of all the dead spaces on the bottom that I had with my wall. Needless to say, not all of the rock went back in so its parked in my green house for now.


FTS
Rerockscape5.jpg


Rerockscape6.jpg
 
The before view
MHontank2.jpg



Rocks removed
Rerockscape1.jpg



The new and improved look :D
Rerockscape15.jpg



I think Frankie did an awesome job on the new rockscape. It's more eye appealing, it allows for better flow and fewer dead spots, it definitely has a lot more flat surfaces to place corals on, and we can see the fish a lot more/easily. The 6 line wrasse and the yellow tale blue damsel have been having a blast exploring the new nooks and crannies, and the green chromis and occellaris' are out and swimming more were we can see and enjoy them. Best of all, my wife likes how it looks too. Big plus. :thumbsup:

Frankie, thanks again for coming over and helping me do the rockscape. I really appreciate it and we're going to enjoy it for years to come. Now its time to start getting more colorful corals to adorn the rockscape. :D
 
Oh, there was one disappointing moment during the rockscaping and that was with the pod farm. I had drilled lots of holes into 2, 1/2" pvc pipes and then capped them. I got the idea from a few different threads and thought I'd try it as well. Well, when we pulled them out during the rerockscape we pulled the caps off and emptied them. No pods. :( Oh well. I didn't put them back in, I'll just hope they grow in the rocks. I want to add some mandarins to the tank at some point but I want to make sure there is enough pods for them.
 
jpsika08 said:
Congrats, the new rockscape looks great, much more minimalistic and clean :D
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Hi Juan,

Thanks. I like the clean look to it as well. The other thing this rockscape does is it lets you see the back of the tank and gives more visual depth. It also gives me more work to do because now, I will have to keep the back glass clean now!! LOL!
 
SNAKEMANVET said:
The new aquascape looks great.
Click to expand...

Thanks SNAKEMANVET,

I'm glad I had help with it. I know what I like when I see it but when it comes to actually designing something requiring an artist's eye, I am totally lost. If it wasn't for my wife, I would go to work in some weird looking clothes. :)
 
That was a major transformation. Great work and its nice to see people willing to go through a lot of work to improve their reef. I am going to be in the same boat here very soon. How long was your rock out of the tank? Notice any dieoff?
 
Hey Chris!
THe rock was not out of the water long enough to have any real die off. We moved pretty quick as a team and it went like clock work. Two people doing it together really makes a difference. My 120 use to be an all day affair by myself.
It would not hurt Chris to get some new water made up and do a large water change once again. After that you can chill out for two weeks then get back into the weekly 10% mode.
Also I would invest in some loose 5/8" clear tubing and start to vacuum the rocks off once a week into a filter sock in the sump. This way you do not loose water and can clean to your hearts content of detritus.
Thanks for letting me help you! It was a lot of fun for me :)
 
austin93 said:
That was a major transformation. Great work and its nice to see people willing to go through a lot of work to improve their reef. I am going to be in the same boat here very soon. How long was your rock out of the tank? Notice any dieoff?
Click to expand...

Hi austin,

Thanks. I could not have done it with out Frankie. The rock was out of water for maybe about 2 hours or so. Like Frankie said, it wasn't out long enough to have die off. If I do have any problems it will be with all the detritus we stirred up during the process. I would definitely run a diatom filter during the process as it did help clean up the water and made it cleaner so we could work and see what we were doing. I'll test the water tonight and see how its doing, but to me, the water looks cleaner than it did before we re did the rockscape. I'm sure cleaning the glass and the back after we were finished has something to do with that. :D
 
FFrankie said:
Hey Chris!
THe rock was not out of the water long enough to have any real die off. We moved pretty quick as a team and it went like clock work. Two people doing it together really makes a difference. My 120 use to be an all day affair by myself.
It would not hurt Chris to get some new water made up and do a large water change once again. After that you can chill out for two weeks then get back into the weekly 10% mode.
Also I would invest in some loose 5/8" clear tubing and start to vacuum the rocks off once a week into a filter sock in the sump. This way you do not loose water and can clean to your hearts content of detritus.
Thanks for letting me help you! It was a lot of fun for me :)
Click to expand...

Already started. :) I'll do a good water change Sunday when I get home from compitition and start playing with hoses for a vacuum. :thumbsup:
 
What I did was take a razor blade and fray they end of the clear tube. Kinda like a brush with slits 1" deep and many of them! Worked well for getting into the crevices. If the fray gets sucked into the tube just shorten the tips until it stays out.
It's a better way to clean over blowing the detritus into the water column.
 
FFrankie said:
What I did was take a razor blade and fray they end of the clear tube. Kinda like a brush with slits 1" deep and many of them! Worked well for getting into the crevices. If the fray gets sucked into the tube just shorten the tips until it stays out.
It's a better way to clean over blowing the detritus into the water column.
Click to expand...

Now thats a neat idea. :)
 
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